Month: August 2018

I gave a friend a ride from the dentist back to work in exchange for 45 tennis balls for my classroom. Lol she had given me some last year but it wasn’t enough for my entire class so I asked for more and just by luck she had gotten some yesterday. I picked them up and had a tour of her new school. We’ll have to eat together soon when we can actually catch up!

Classroom:

I was all for going shopping to finish my mom’s list but she said I had to go in and finish putting sliders in the dollhouse and tennis balls on the chair legs. These things got done and I am as ready as I’m going to get!

Shopping:

I picked up some dolls for my classroom centers. We found a black cardigan, running shoes, socks and black capris for my mom. Not everything accomplished but a good job overall!

Socializing:

I was off this afternoon to visit the PNE fair with a couple of friends. It is one of our summer traditions. I carpooled with a friend and I now have a secret parking place that doesn’t cost $25! I’m so glad as that was one of my least favourite parts of the PNE- paying too much for parking!!

We were laughing when we met up as there must have been a subliminal memo go out!

Jean capris and Skechers for the win!

We went and lined up to see the show house right away.

I wasn’t impressed as it has a very weird layout! The two guest rooms, a bath and the laundry room are on the ground floor and then you go upstairs for your kitchen, dining room and master suite. It also seemed like there was a ton of wasted space!

We also did the farm country, the dragon exhibit, the classic cars,My favourite from my childhood! I was determined to have a 1956 Chevy Belair when I was a kid! Now I don’t want to pay the fuel bill for that!

We also saw the superdogs show which is always cute and the new jousting show which I found boring as there was too much talking and not enough action!

My friends ate a ton of food. I think that might be part of the experience for them, but I didn’t find much I could eat:(

These tacos were good, but extremely small and overpriced!

The final thing of the evening was that an Irishman got me. At the start of summer Gus and I were at an event and he was super interested in this paintball company. I said no, but this time the gorgeous Irishman with the amazing accent got me.🤷🏼‍♀️

I just hope it wasn’t a scam! I already almost regret this purchase, but maybe Gus (and Dawson cause I’m not going paintballing) and I will get one good outing out of it! Though I already know they’ll make their money off the purchase of paintballs:(. Why is taking kids out always so expensive?!?!

Well I have come home to remember that I had ripped my bed apart so now I have to go make it so I can crawl in!

I was sweaty by the end which of course was the goal. My arm didn’t like the planks, but I survived and moved slightly closer to my goal:)

Teaching:

I met my parents at my classroom as my dad delivered my chair back. It works so well now!!!! My mom and I tackled the containers so they are done and look so much better!! I actually managed to get rid of a few and the rest got organized and colour coded, of course 🤣

Shopping:

We managed to only spend 45 minutes in my classroom and then it was off for some shopping. My mom likes to shop when it’s for me ( I seem to be her Barbie doll), but she hates it when it’s for her and today was for her. She needs clothes for her trip!!! Amazingly we both found a lot of stuff! I probably didn’t need anything, but I bought it anyways. More than half was new workout gear which always inspires me to get active so that’s good!

I have my mom’s stuff all washed (she would have to pay to do it, but I don’t), and I will tackle my stuff this weekend as I don’t have the time crunch she does. I did get all the tags cut off and all of it entered into my Stylebook app:)

Eating:

After all that shopping, my mom and I were starving. We hit the Coquitlam Grill for lunch. It’s not fancy at all, but boy is it good, fast and cheap! I had the jambalaya rice bowl that was so good! I still couldn’t finish it though!

House:

I’ve lived in my place for ten years and for ten years my bedroom has been driving me crazy! My place was built during the time that overhead lights weren’t popular so my light switch turns on a little lamp in the corner. Grrr I just want to be able to see something!!! A while back I had bought a hanging fixture and asked my brother to wire it to a plug in for me. Well actually, I just left it on his dining room table🤣. I will now do this with everything I want done as my sister in law was after him and today he came and put up the light for me! I love it😍😍😍😍😍😍. Let there be light!

Knitting/ Crafting:

I promised you a picture of the scarf I made for my friend Kari. Here it is and I just hope she likes it and it’s long enough!

I have gone back to working on my rug as I am just 1.5 squares away from being done. I would still like to be done before school starts, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen:(.

It was a lovely day with my mom. We didn’t do anything super exciting, but it’s just so nice to have company!

Exercise:

This morning I managed to get up another fifteen minutes earlier. One more roll back and then I just need to maintain the time to get used to work. I had to head straight out this morning to get my run in. It was lovely to be able to get out in the cool, fresh air. I did my usual 6.3km route, but cut it a little shorter as I didn’t have to do that much to finish the Squad Runner mission. I did manage to pick it up a couple of times in the speed department. I’d like to blame the lack of speed on my five pounds, but I think it’s more the lack of weight training:(

Teaching:

I ran through the shower, grabbed a carrot muffin and met my parents at my school. My dad took my chair away to attach the new wheels and my mom and I tackled the last few tasks. I’m happy with my classroom but the one thing left to do is to go through my container stash. I seem to find it very difficult to get rid of containers, but now they don’t all fit. I really don’t want to spend more time in my classroom this week, but I also know that if I don’t do it this week while my mom is here to help (they are all well above my head, even on a ladder) then it will have to wait until November:(. Oh well, that’s not the worst thing in the world!

Eating:

At noon we knocked off for lunch at the pub. Today we got to go to the good pub! My mom and I split the nachos. We get all the toppings on the side and my mom gets the cheese and sour cream and I get the guacamole and salsa:)

We didn’t even manage to finish the half order!!!

Shopping:

I ran down to the teacher store in Vancouver. I needed my bee labels and picked up some desk plates for two other teachers. After making that trek I have decided that if my local teacher store doesn’t have the supply I need, I’ll be ordering it online. I just don’t need enough after sixteen years of teaching to make the trip worthwhile.

Knitting:

I have spent the evening finishing up the scarf I am making for my friend Kari. I am much happier with this one than the other. It is done in Loops and Threads: Charisma Heather in purple. The pattern is double seed which I always love. It is nice and soft so it will hopefully be what she wanted:)

I managed to wake up a little earlier than I have been and not take a nap, so that’s a good step in the right direction!

Teaching:

My mom is home for the week and said today was the day we would tackle putting my classroom back together. You might remember that in June I had to put everything in the coat room, so now I got the fun of taking it all back out:(. I had come up with some new ideas for my classroom, but they didn’t work out so it’s back to how it’s always been. I did make a few changes though which I am liking! I’ll try to take some photos tomorrow. No we didn’t manage to finish everything before my help went on strike because she was hungry.

Eating:

My dad and uncle had come up to look at the wheels on my desk chair as they weren’t working ( I think they really just wanted to take the car for a ride with the top down), but decided they would just replace the wheels. They were heading for lunch and do my mom and I made plans to join them at the local pub. Unfortunately my favourite place has no kitchen today so we ended up at the Frog and Nightgown. This is actually the pub my mom took me to the day I turned 19 ( said she was never eating McDonalds again!). My mom and I shared the Frog burger and a salad. It was okay, but nothing to write home about. Sorry there is no picture- if you knew my dad and uncle, you would know why🤣

Shopping:

My mom and I were on our way back to my classroom, but I needed gas so we headed to Costco instead. My mom is a really bad influence on me🤣😜. I ended up with new sheets, a new mum plants, and a ton of food! Oh well, I’ll just freeze the stuff I made earlier in the week for lunches next week.

Surprise:

I got home to a note saying that I had a package. I wandered over to the Post Office very confused as I hadn’t ordered anything. I came back with quite a large package. I opened it up and started tearing up as this is what was inside it!

This is a quilt that Tracy at Its A T Sweets Day has made. I had commented on it and she has sent it to me for my classroom.😍😍😍😍. I sat stunned and shocked for quite a while. I can’t believe there are people as amazing as Tracy in this world! Now I’m on the hunt for the perfect way to say thank you!

Blogging:

I have to say that when I started this blog it was simply a way for me to keep track of my exercise, recipes, knitting, etc. I also thought it might help me to recognize the little things that happen in life more. I have consistently been blown away by the people I have met through blogging! I enjoy reading blogs every day as I learn so much and come to feel as though I know people, but I also enjoy interacting with so many people every day ( that is quite a shock for someone as shy as me). Thank you to all of you who give so much of yourselves through your blogs and interactions each day!

Exercise:

I finally got off my couch this evening and went and met Dennis for a run! I told him he had to decide how far we were going and I got lucky as he only made me do 4km!! It was another not great run:(. I really need to remember not to drink four glasses of water right before I head out the door for a run!!!🙄

I had to start the day by finally getting on the scale and finding out how much my month of holidaying cost me. I was quite happy it was only five pounds and hopefully they’ll be gone soon! You may see more pictures of what I’m eating so that I stay on track and feel free to “yell at me” if I’m not exercising consistently.

Exercise:

I dropped off my library books and started my run from the opposite side as I usually do. I hadn’t gone far when I knew it wasn’t going to be a great run. I actually turned around at one point and then thought, no I’d better get it done first thing. It ended up being a combination of walking and running. I suppose I had it coming as I have been eating unhealthy food and and can tell you I haven’t been drinking enough water. I guess it all caught up to me.

On my run, I was thinking about upcoming workouts. Last year I started the school year running before school at 6am, but it really only worked until it got too dark so I am thinking that I am going to stick with after school runs. I think it might serve as a good way to clear my head as well as get some exercise.

This evening, I wanted to do something to continue to get back to being healthy but I’m still slightly sore from last night’s workout so I decided to do an ab workout as it is the first day my stomach isn’t sore. I did: 10 weighted sit ups, 20 crunches, 30 twisted mountain climbers, 40 static crunch with scissor legs, 50 reverse curls, 60 toe reaches, 70 weighted Russian twists, 80 bicycles, 90 leg drops, 100 dead bugs.

At this point I am thinking that I will alternate an ab workout with a regular workout. We’ll see how that goes.

I guess it was my day to make active decisions🤣

Shopping:

I had made plans to meet up with my friend Brenda to go to Gourmet Warehouse. Neither of us are allowed in this store without supervision so we go together a couple of times a year. It was fun to poke through for a couple of hours and there were lots of things I wanted, but I just came home with this:

Eating:

Another part of the fun of Gourmet Warehouse is that there is a fabulous restaurant nearby. It is called Scandilicious. It is horrible to find parking around there, but is definitely worth the search! The other two times I’ve been to Scandilicious I’ve had the Veganessa which is a gluten free and dairy free waffle with peanut butter, jam and berries. This time, the girl at the counter said that three other dishes could be made gf/df. I was a little nervous after my recent dairy problem, but went for it and had the Westcoast with lemon dill sauce rather than hollandaise.

It was amazing!!!!!!! Waffle with smoked salmon, capers, lemon dill sauce and two eggs! Oh I could eat that for every meal!! Their chai latte with almond milk was really good too!

Brenda had the ABBA which she was raving about as well. It is Brie, bacon, apple and avocado on a waffle with balsamic drizzled on top.

On the way home I saw the Chomp Eatery I have been wanting to try but don’t know if I can give up going to Scandilicious to try Chomp🤣

Knitting:

I haven’t knitted yet today, though it is on the agenda for after I get this post done, but I wanted to finally show you the scarf I made last week.

It is more purple than it shows in the picture, but I like how it is reversible as the pattern is the same on both sides. It knit up fast and will now go in my basket to be gifted or donated as it is not long enough for my friend Kari. It is the speed bumps pattern on ravelry and just made with red heart yarn I had in my stash.

Reading:

Instead of the knitting I was supposed to be doing, I sat on my deck reading all afternoon. I finished my last library book, and I’m not allowed anymore until I get caught up on ARCs and the loaned books.

I really enjoyed Moonlight Over Manhattan as it’s the newest in the series. I liked how it brought two different Sarah Morgan series together so I got a little update on the characters from the O’Neil series. The characters were interesting and I especially liked the main woman as there were lots of things I could relate to. I also liked that the book was about self-growth a lot and yet it was laugh out loud funny in parts. A great summer read!

Blogging:

So I caught up on my blog reading today and realized you all are who I should ask. The other night, WordPress told me photos couldn’t be uploaded as I had used all of my 3G. I deleted a few pictures that were duplicated which has solved the problem for the moment, but I am wondering how other people have dealt with this problem?

I dragged myself out of bed for my Sunday morning run. I don’t know why I was so tired, but I really was. I gave myself permission to run even slower than normal, but I had to go as I was meeting people.

I ended up doing 6.5km along the river. I was super slow and it decided to pour rain the whole time we were out there, but oh well, I’d better get used to it again and we definitely need the rain!

My running buddies were awesome as I was 600m short of my distance when we got back to the car and they carried on with me:)

This evening I decided there was no time like the present to get back to routine so I found a workout to do and did it. I often screenshot workouts and then don’t know where I got them. So I apologize to whoever created this great workout. If it was you, please let me know so I can give you credit!!!

20 Around the world lunges

12 stability ball hamstring curls

12 SL Bridges

12 sumo squat calf raises

12 SL deadlifts

12 deadlifts

10 curtsy lunges

10 medicine ball jump squats

10 knee tucks

10 pikes

10 side plank knee tucks

10 banded fire hydrants

10 banded aide leg raises

10 clams

10 plank leg lifts

I love the fact that I was sweaty by the time I got to the end. It felt good to be moving again!

Reading:

I finished another Susan Mallery library book (it’s due back tomorrow!) called Second Chance Girl. It is part of the Happily Inc series and was quite enjoyable. I think Matthias is my favourite brother so far in this series as he’s more upbeat and personable. I liked that the book featured both of the Lund sisters, but I truly think they both could have had their own books as it felt quite surface for both relationships.

I of course have started another book already which I am really enjoying!

Knitting:

Around my long nap, I have also done some knitting today. I had knit a scarf for my friend while I was away, but it was too short, so I picked up more yarn and have started a new one! The yarn I picked is Loops and Threads Charisma Heather. This friend is not a knitter so I wanted something that wasn’t delicate. I have a week to get it done, and thankfully finally made some progress today while watching some old Hallmark movies.

Cooking:

I spent some more time in the kitchen today. I was amazed to learn that all of my running buddies, past and present have a lovely brunch once they get home from our run on Sunday morning! Why have I never done this??? Today I did. I love breakfast hash and so made up my own. I heated cubed sweet potato, added celery, garlic, purple pepper and onion, then chorizo sausage, mushrooms and spinach. I topped it with some mozzarella cheese and an egg. It was so good I could eat it everyday!

My egg wasn’t pretty so you get a picture pre-egg.

I also tried another recipe from my Ella Woodward cookbook

Today I tried the carrot muffins. They are edible, but I find them too heavy and dense for my taste. I’ve done a lot of gf/df baking and there is better baking out there! I will try a few of the other recipes before I decide whether to keep the book.

I was so happy to get up this morning and hear rain! It didn’t change my plans but was definitely needed!

Exercise:

I have to admit to feeling pudgy lately. Some is due to the dairy attack, but a lot is due to my time in Robert’s Creek. This morning started off on a good note to change that feeling- a nice hike with my friend Sarah and Kula.

He did spend a lot of time waiting for us at the top of hills and at the bottom of hills. It really does look like he is saying, “geez can’t you two keep up?”

It was a great 5.8km walk and is definitely how I like to spend my days off!

This evening, I really didn’t want to go out, but knew I had to in order to make progress on the 15km mission. I gave myself permission to take it easy and slow and just do a short run as it’s been over a week since I ran. The rain had stopped and I enjoyed my 3.35km run.

This is a start back into my healthy lifestyle. I figure I had better get back into my habits this week so that they are established before we add in kids and work!

This is the third story in the Happily Inc series. I greatly enjoyed it.

Natalie is the main heroine and I lover her optimism. She brings fun and positivity to every situation and yet she’s not an unrealistic Pollyanna. She has confidence in herself and I love her self-assured statement. Yet she has hidden depths as you can see she sometimes doubts she can be loved as it hasn’t worked out for her in the past.

Ronan is the Moody artist. I have to admit this isn’t my ideal man and much of his struggle just annoyed me. I very much agreed with Natalie that he was still incredibly lucky with his life and why he was pouting, was beyond me.

I enjoyed how Ronan became closer to his brothers and that brought the rest of the family into the book.

I also liked how the book didn’t go as I thought it would. At one point I thought I knew what was going to happen and I was completely wrong. I am so happy that I was!

The book celebrates art which is great and would be of interest to anyone who is artistic or enjoys art. It definitely gave me inspiration to create!

Thank you to NetGalley, Susan Mallery and the publisher for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I of course have started another book that has to be returned Monday instead of doing any of the projects that I really need to get done:(

Cooking:

With the rain, it felt like the perfect day to do some cooking and it would help with getting me back on track to healthy!

I started with making the pesto pasta salad. It was super easy as I just cooked up some shell pasta, added quartered cherry tomatoes, minced garlic and pesto. I had it for lunch and am very happy with the results. Even better I have four servings in my fridge and whatever doesn’t get eaten will get frozen:)

I also cooked up some chicken and made up some chicken Caesar salads as there was Earth Island Parmesan cheese (fake) on sale this week. I had this for dinner and was super happy with it too! I don’t normally like Daiya anything, but I don’t mind the Caesar dressing.

I made the Zucchini Banana Bread and am not very happy with it. I have high expectations for my baking now and this is very dense and heavy and didn’t cook nicely at all:(. I will give the book a few more chances, but so far I’m not impressed:(

I couldn’t take sitting around another day, but knew I also couldn’t stress my body out more.

Exercise:

I got up this morning and wanted to run the 42 minute Squad Runner mission, but knew I couldn’t. I don’t think I could stop itching for that long, so I decided to walk instead. It felt great just to be outside and moving, though I definitely wasn’t as quick as I usually am!

I had arranged to go for a bike ride with a colleague this afternoon. Though my bike seat quickly grew uncomfortable, it was still an awesome 18km ride. We figured out the path is a 25km loop and one day soon we would like to do it. We just need to find a map for it first!

Errands:

I stopped on the way home and picked up a few groceries, unfortunately more than I need, but thankfully the extras are fruits and veggies. It will be so nice to get back to eating normally! I have a meal plan made for the week and hopefully tomorrow I will be doing some cooking!

Reading:

I finished my library book!

About That Kiss was a great addition to this Jill Shalvis series and I finished it in two days. I liked this book for a few reasons. First it had the strong friendship circle that was predominant. Secondly, the characters were flawed, interesting and realistic. Thirdly, the pace was awesome- it gave enough detail without bogging the reader down in description, details or flowery language. Lastly, I enjoyed that the romance actually took a back seat to the central investigative plot!

I can’t wait for the next in the series which is out at the end of September!

Movie:

This evening I hung out with my friend Michelle ( who has an awesome blog you should check out😀). We caught up as we hadn’t seen each other in at least a month, maybe two. We also watched a Hallmark movie. It was nice to have someone to enjoy one of these with. We watched Autumn Dreams.

I have no idea why they are in a boat as that didn’t happen in the movie! This movie was neat as it was obviously filmed in Vancouver so we spent lots of time identifying locations. I really liked the driver Hector in this movie and he made the movie for me! Michelle liked the personal assistant and she was good too. I would say this movie is worth watching and the ending is very cute!

Michelle, thanks for an awesome night and for being such a great friend!!!

I’m so sorry you haven’t heard from me! For some very strange reason I wasn’t getting service suddenly while I was away and there was no WiFi at my friend’s place.

I had a lovely few days visiting the Sunshine Coast and visiting the couple who taught me how to run and then we’re my running buddies for many years.

Wednesday was a very busy day! I awoke to G making me a tea and everyone else very fancy lattes. He had one of those big machines and I have to say his drinks are more beautiful than anything I’ve seen before!!

Eating:

We wanted to take them for a meal and they chose the Basted Baker. I had a better experience here this time. It took about ten minutes to get our food and the egg bennies looked great. They did mess up and put butter on my gluten free dairy free biscuit but quickly fixed it. I loved my biscuit with avocado and egg!!!

Shopping:

After sustenance we checked out the balsamic vinegar shop next door. I learned a lot- there is white balsamic vinegar and also there is infused and fused balsamic. The infused flavor will last during cooking while the fused won’t. I ended up buying a bottle of cilantro garlic balsamic vinegar for my salads. It was neat though that the shop owner was actually from my town and we recognized each other, but couldn’t figure out from where.

We then proceeded to look at the sports store and a bead shop. We also stopped into the Cheeky Monkey for treats. I’m becoming a regular at some of these places!

We made our way to this very cute little gift shop!

It so reminded me of my grandma as everything was painted. I looked out the back window of the shop and saw her Adirondack chairs were painted as was her watering can:). We used to say that if you stayed still too long at my grandma’s house you’d end up painted🤣

We ended up buying my friend a tea pot here that she fell in love with:)

Sightseeing:

We had a look around Robert’s Creek and amazingly they managed to show me things I hadn’t seen in my previous two visits.

The first stop was the mandala that an artist outlines each year and then people of the town get to fill in one square. There were some beautiful pieces and some fun ones.

The scenery around the area of the mandala was gorgeous as well and was originally an 800meter pier for the steamship to moor at which is how people originally got to this area.

Eating:

Of course after this strenuous morning we stopped for more food and ended up eating at the Gibson’s Market. It is quite new and very bright and beautiful. I think it would be a great place for a wedding. I had a half order of a curry and it was delicious. I hear the BLT and the classic Mac and cheese were also good.

I found this awesome beeswax wrap which is reuseable Saran Wrap, but my mom got it cheaper elsewhere so I’ll pick it up there. They were also filming a movie outside so the gorgeous gate was covered in wreaths. I’ll have to keep my eye out though because it definitely had a Hallmark movie feel to it!😀

Shopping:

The last stop of the day was to grab this ginger brew that was amazing!

I don’t normally like ginger all that much, but I would definitely recommend this!

Eating:

We hung out back at the house talking and finished the night with dessert and three games of Yahtzee. I managed to win the last game, though all three were super fun! My friends all had lemon curd cupcakes from the Cheeky Monkey and raves about them. I had the oat fudge bar and it was good too, but I really wanted something lemony!

Today was a little quieter. My friends had made an amazing breakfast of fruit salad, yogurt (not for me), hard boiled eggs, cinnamon raisin bread with peanut butter and Holy Crap cereal, which is made in their town. It was all so yummy along with many many cups of tea:)

Exercise:

We finally moved our bodies again on a little walk around Kinnikinnick Park. There are many easy trails in here but we did the main one that was just 3km.

Knitting:

I finished a scarf I was working on for a friend after breakfast, but it turned out to be too short. It will go into the charity basket and I’ll have to start over for my friend. I’ll share pictures of it tomorrow:)

Sightseeing:

On today’s agenda was a cidery that was just up the road from my friend’s place. The cider ended up being way too dry for my tastes, but the property was super cute as are all of their signs as they feature bears. For example, I think this is the true meaning of a growler.

Eating:

The cidery has a good trick at it, but we decided to go for lunch at the local pub.

It’s hilarious that I really have spent my summer on the water as here again, I ended up.

I had the special of a seafood curry along with salad. This restaurant unfortunately didn’t understand gluten free, dairy free though as they left off the rice but put butter in the sauce.

I knew I was in trouble right away, but thankfully my body waited until I got home to be spectacularly sick many many times!!☹️

I suppose the silver lining is that feeling this way definitely makes me not want to eat which will help me get back to normal!

I’m now back home and in bed and at the end of my holidays almost. Hopefully I can pack a few more fun things into my last week off!

Yesterday morning I threw my freshly washed clothes back into my bag and headed out the door once again. This time I was with my friend Brenda and heading to visit our running buddies who moved earlier this year.

It was a smooth trip with no problems. We even got an awesome spot on the ferry so a just sat in the car and knitted.

We thankfully had great directions and found their house without incident. It is such a cute little place!

The rest of the day was spent talking and catching up over an awesome meal of salmon, carrots, salad and fresh fruit for dessert.

This couple has a dog so the evening ended with a lovely walk along the water.

As you can tell we still have horrible smoke here from the wildfires, but supposedly it will clear out tomorrow.🤞🏻